This was almost the story of a 1962 Chrysler. Sometime in late 1961 or early ’62, Anthony Griffo’s father, Giuseppe—“Joe” in this country—was working as a mechanic at Johnny’s County Motors in Oaklyn, New Jersey. The base price for this Bonneville back then was $3,349, a hair more than the $3,323 Chrysler 300. Now, granted, the 300 was not a 300-H, nor even a New Yorker—it was more or less a Chryslerized version of the discontinued De Soto Adventurer—but neither is a Bonneville a Grand Prix. Both are still nice, powerful, luxurious mid-priced cars.
The trouble was that Joe’s boss didn’t think he could swing the payments on a 300 hardtop, and Joe thought he could.
“My father really wanted to buy a new Chrysler,” Anthony says. “Every day, he would try to talk to the owner of the dealership, and every day he would get the same response:
